Background: Socioeconomic inequalities in oral health have been reported in developed countries, but the influence of marital status has rarely been considered. Our aim was to examine marital status differentials in the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and oral health among community-dwelling Japanese women.

Methods: From 2010 to 2011, a questionnaire survey was conducted among residents aged 25–50 years in Japanese metropolitan areas. Valid responses were received from 626 unmarried women and 1,620 married women. Women’s own and husbands’ educational attainment and equivalent income were used to assess SES. Self-rated “fair” or “poor” oral health was defined as poor oral health. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine which SES indicators were associated with oral health.

Results: The prevalence of poor oral health was 21.1% among unmarried women and 23.8% among married women. Among unmarried women, equivalent income was not associated with oral health, but women’s own education was significantly associated with oral health; the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio of poor oral health among those with high school education or lower compared to those with university education or higher was 2.14 (95% confidence interval, 1.19–3.87). Among married women, neither women’s own nor husbands’ education was associated with oral health, but equivalent income was significantly associated with oral health, particularly among housewives; the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio of poor oral health among those in the lowest compared with highest income quartile was 1.57 (95% confidence interval, 1.08–2.27).

Conclusions: These findings indicate that marital status should be considered when examining associations between SES and oral health among Japanese women.

Methods: We followed 3,540 male participants of Aichi Workers’ Cohort Study, who were aged 35–64 years and were free of diabetes in 2002, until March 31, 2015. Baseline age, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, alcohol consumption, regular exercise, medication for dyslipidemia, diabetes family history, and blood levels of triglycerides (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC) and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were examined using Cox proportional hazard model. Variables significantly associated with T2DM in univariable models were simultaneously entered in a multivariable model for determination of the final model using backward variable selection. Performance of an existing T2DM model when applied to the current dataset was compared to that obtained in the present study’s model.

Results: During the median follow-up of 12.2 years, 342 incident T2DM cases were documented. The prediction system using points assigned to age, BMI, smoking status, diabetes family history, and TG and FBG showed reasonable discrimination (c-index: 0.77) and goodness-of-fit (Hosmer-Lemeshow test, P = 0.22). The present model outperformed the previous one in the present subjects.

Conclusion: The point system, once validated in the other populations, could be applied to middle-aged Japanese male workers to identify those at high risk of developing T2DM. In addition, further investigation is also required to examine whether the use of this system will reduce incidence.

Background: The Genome Database of the Latvian Population (LGDB) is a national biobank that collects, maintains, and processes health information, data, and biospecimens collected from representatives of the Latvian population. These specimens serve as a foundation for epidemiological research and prophylactic and therapeutic purposes.

Methods: Participant recruitment and biomaterial and data processing were performed according to specifically designed standard protocols, taking into consideration international quality requirements. Legal and ethical aspects, including broad informed consent and personal data protection, were applied according to legal norms of the Republic of Latvia.

Results: Since its start in 2006, the LGDB is comprised of biosamples and associated phenotypic and clinical information from over 31,504 participants, constituting approximately 1.5% of the Latvian population. The LGDB represents a mixed-design biobank and includes participants from the general population as well as disease-based cohorts. The standard set of biosamples stored in the LGDB consists of DNA, plasma, serum, and white blood cells; in some cohorts, these samples are complemented by cancer biopsies and microbiome and urine samples. The LGDB acts as a core structure for the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre (BMC), representing the national node of Latvia in Biobanking and BioMolecular resources Research Infrastructure – European Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC).

Conclusions: The development of the LGDB has enabled resources for biomedical research and promoted genetic testing in Latvia. Further challenges of the LGDB are the enrichment and harmonization of collected biosamples and data, the follow-up of selected participant groups, and continued networking and participation in collaboration projects.

Background: Metabolically healthy obesity seems to be a unique phenotype for the risk of cardiometabolic diseases. However, it is not known whether this phenotype is associated with the risk of proteinuria.

Methods: Study subjects were 9,185 non-diabetic Japanese male workers aged 40–55 years who had no proteinuria, an estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m2, no history of cancer, and no use of antihypertensive or lipid-lowering medications at baseline. Obesity was defined as body mass index ≥25.0 kg/m2. Metabolic health was defined as the presence of no Adult Treatment Panel III components of the metabolic syndrome criteria, excluding waist circumference, and metabolic unhealth was defined as the presence of one or more metabolic syndrome components, excluding waist circumference. “Consecutive proteinuria” was considered positive if proteinuria was detected twice consecutively as 1+ or higher on urine dipstick at annual examinations to exclude chance proteinuria as much as possible.

Background: Most studies of plasma adiponectin (APN) and mortality among community-dwelling elderly focus on cardiovascular disease, but data on the relationship between plasma APN and cancer mortality is exiguous. We investigated whether APN is associated with cancer mortality in community-dwelling elderly people.

Methods: We conducted a case-cohort study within the New Integrated Suburban Seniority Investigation (NISSIN) Project using a randomly drawn sub-cohort of 697 subjects (351 men and 346 women; mean age 64.5 [standard deviation, 0.5] years) among whom we compared cases of all-cause death (n = 269) and cancer death (n = 149) during a mean follow-up duration of 10.8 (standard deviation, 3.7) years. Associations between APN and mortality were assessed using weighted Cox regression analyses.